OSHKOSH - Events that alarmed the Fox Crossing Municipal Court clerk and village leaders were characterized as innocuous when Municipal Judge Len Kachinsky took the stand Friday in a judicial conduct hearing in which his actions toward his court clerk were under scrutiny.

He said he felt he had done the best he could in addressing the conflict with his court clerk, Mandy Bartelt.

Bartelt was hired in 2016, and Kachinsky testified that soon after she started her job he experienced a series of health issues that kept him out of the office for extended periods. Both agree that they developed a friendship, but what happened as the relationship devolved is subject to significantly different interpretations.

She testified on Thursday that she ultimately came to fear him, and village officials testified to their concerns about his behavior, including an instance in which they interpreted an email he sent as a possible threat of violence.

Under cross-examination, he acknowledged that he could have handled some situations differently.

Kachinsky testified before a panel of three Court of Appeals judges that it was an accident when he knocked things off Bartelt's desk in the midst of whispering at her, "Are you afraid of me now?" Hitting her things wasn't intentional or meant to frighten or intimidate her, he said.

"I asked her if she was afraid of me because I was generally confused by her lack of fearful demeanor when we were alone in the office with nobody else present," he testified.

Her report that he sat next to her making cat noises was an instance in which he had come by the Municipal Building to perform a wedding and had some extra time to observe her customer service skills — though he did acknowledge, "I may have made a cat noise or two."

The village's municipal court is held just a few nights a month and the judge is not routinely in the office.

He was trying to "be a nice guy" and tell Bartelt that a Facebook geolocation feature had alerted him that her mother had been at her house one weekend. Instead, that information elicited an "extreme emotional reaction" from her that surprised him, he said.

His comments came in the midst of testimony Friday in a case brought against him by the Wisconsin Judicial Commission. The Judicial Commission investigates allegations of misconduct by judges and filed a complaint against Kachinsky in April with the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In its investigation, the Judicial Commission found that Kachinsky had violated rules governing judicial conduct.

The case revolves around his treatment of Bartelt. Kachinsky is accused of harassing her and retaliating against her beginning in 2017. The same issue has been at the center of a series of court cases involving Kachinsky and the village of Fox Crossing, including a criminal case in which he was acquitted in December.

Bartelt was the Judicial Commission's first witness and testified for hours on Thursday. She spoke to his making cat noises at her on one occasion and on another explaining to her that he knew where her family members lived. She described floods of emails that didn't stop even when she and village leaders repeatedly told him communication needed to be only work-related.

Kachinsky represented himself at the two-day hearing held at the Winnebago County Courthouse. Court of Appeals Judges Mark Gundrum, Joan F. Kessler and William Brash III presided.

At the hearing, the Judicial Commission must prove its allegations. Judges who are found to have committed misconduct can be reprimanded, censured, suspended or removed.

The panel of judges has a March 1 deadline to file its report containing any recommendations for discipline, according to court records. That will be reviewed by the state Supreme Court, which will determine an appropriate disposition.

Kachinsky didn't seek re-election and will cease to be in the position on May 1, regardless of the outcome of the Judicial Commission case.

Under cross-examination by Judicial Commission Executive Director Jeremiah Van Hecke, Kachinsky at times acknowledged that there were situations he could have handled differently, including in some electronic communications.

But he also countered that an email he wrote that referenced "fire and fury at the Municipal Building" and warned Bartelt to be "psychologically prepared" shouldn't have been interpreted as a threat of violence by village leaders. That email caused police to launch an investigation.

But Kachinsky said he didn't see how that phrase would be reasonably interpreted as a threat of violence: "The idea of me causing fire and fury with anything similar to what an attack on North Korea would be by the United States is totally ridiculous."

Instead, the reference foreshadowed a lawsuit he planned on filing.

The Supreme Court suspended Kachinsky from the bench in July after he was arrested on preliminary charges of stalking and violating a temporary restraining order, also related to Bartelt. He was charged and acquitted by a jury in Winnebago County court but was not reinstated.

Kachinsky is a longtime attorney in the Fox Cities who garnered national attention when he was featured in the Netflix documentary series "Making a Murderer." He had served as an attorney for Brendan Dassey before being removed from the case.